Help navigation
- Friday, 25 May
Log in to TheBookseller.com
News
-
RELATED STORIES
-
Café W to be rolled out at Waterstones
Waterstones is planning to ...
-
Daunt: 'tens of millions' going into Waterstones refit
The Waterstones decision to...
-
Daunt: Waterstones customers 'want Kindle'
Waterstones m.d. James Daun...
-
Subs drop as chain adopts buying tool
Waterstones has dropped its...
-
Waterstones signs Kindle deal with Amazon
Waterstones has signed a co...
Hardbacks thrown a lifeline by Daunt
11.11.11 | Benedicte Page and Lisa Campbell
Publishers are rethinking their format strategies as Waterstone's m.d. James Daunt's avowed fondness for the hardback creates an impetus away from paperback-first publication.
Daunt has spoken publicly about his wish to champion hardback editions, with publishers deeming his attitude a welcome change from the dominant trend of recent years.
The pressures on the hardback market have manifested themselves once again in 2011, with hardback fiction sales falling 7% in the first six months of 2011 according to Nielsen BookScan data, whereas paperback fiction has fallen 4%. Meanwhile, analysis of BookScan's Top 5,000 bestseller list for October saw spending on hardback books down 3% year on year, with fiction sales down 7% and non-fiction down 20%. Industry figures have cited both the economic downturn and the shift to e-books among the factors behind the figures.
But Daunt's support for the format is giving publishers new confidence. Vintage publisher Dan Franklin said: "James is a hardback man and he's about the only person who can sell them."
An independent publisher, who preferred to speak anonymously, confirmed that it was "reviewing all our fiction formats next year" after being given the news by Waterstone's fiction buyer Chris White that the hardback was in favour, adding: "It is welcome news for publishers."
Franklin said the change of policy at Waterstone's had relieved him of a "terrible dilemma" between competing demands from retailers. "Waterstone's would never put hardbacks in the three-for-twos whatever the price points," he said. "We do a lot of hardbacks at £12.99, exactly the same price as trade paperback, but it made no difference. So you were torn between Waterstone's, who would want a book in paperback for the three-for-twos, and independents, who loathed trade paperbacks and would say: 'Please, please give us hardbacks.' You weighed up which to go for, and during the dark days at Waterstone's I sometimes tended to plump for hardback. Now there won't be that prejudice."
Simon & Schuster publishing director Suzanne Baboneau said: "There was a time when you were acquiring a book and thinking about formats, that the response from your Waterstone's accounts manager would be 'Waterstone's would prefer a paperback.' Certainly the swing is to hardbacks now."
Producing a hardback edition gives publishers more flexibility, Baboneau said. "It's good to have the option of another edition up your sleeve; to do the hardback, and then be able to tweak the jacket and add quotes when you do the trade paperback edition and then the mass market paperback. It means you can give a book that extra push." She added that, though there was little price differential between formats, "subconsciously publishers and agents love a hardback, and reviewers do too—it's something about the colour of the boards, the flaps, the feel of it for book buyers."
Trackback URL for this post:
http://www.thebookseller.com/trackback/72341
TheBookseller
-
Axe joins Aurum: Aurum has appointed Jessica Axe to the role of... t.co/u70eq7oY
-
Tax protest disrupts Amazon shareholders meeting: A protest demonstration has disrupted Amazon.... t.co/xrSxWG0u
-
James Daunt's vision for Waterstones now becoming clearer, coffee house with reading : full story here t.co/DX7zJUNd
©2012 Bookseller Media Ltd rights reserved.
Comments: Scroll down for the latest comments and to have your say
By posting on this website you agree to the Bookseller comments policy. Comments go direct to live please be relevant, brief and definitely not abusive. Report any "unsuitable comments by clicking the links"
Sort: Oldest first | Newest first | Readers' most recommended
ACTUALLY we did have some hardbacks in the 3 for 2 - my guess is this includes some very old quotes!
Some of my customers won't buy hardbacks for 2 reasons, 1) they are too expensive (£20 for a book that will be £9 in 6 months time) and they are too heavy. So for publishers to make this work knock £5 off the price and use light weight paper!
Smaller format hardbacks are the way to go. It is Royal which is a heavy, clumsy size but B format hardback works well. As a publisher I sell plenty of B format hardbacks, but stopped doing Royal long ago. Also, trade paperbacks are impossible to sell. I have no idea why they are done other than for Airside.
Dan Franklin said: "James is a hardback man and he's about the only person who can sell them."
I think Dan Franklin needs to get out to more bookshops!
Couldn't agree more, Susan, on all your points
For hardbacks to be more appealing, they can't just be a larger version of the paperbacks. A case in point is Clive Barker's Abarat books. The hardbacks are saturated in all his wonderful art pierces that go hand in hand with the creation of his world. I find the lacking of said pictures in the paperback is a huge turn off. If the HB format actually had more going for it overall, bar a heaftier price and weight, interest may return. We still sell a ton of best seller HB's, like Snuff, Inheritance etc. etc. but the lesser known authors, and the niche titles just don't bring in the sales that Daunt's hoping for. Even I with a staff discount won't buy them, unless they really are a "neeeeeed to read now" scenario, or they look truly special.
James Daunt says he quite likes a HB so the whole publishing industry rethinks it's strategy (and ignores the figures) ? If this is how publishers do business, it's no wonder the industry is in crisis.
James Daunt told me he likes ice cream !!!
(Next day) Move over Jamie...we need the room for the refrigerators.
All joking aside...is this a slow news day? Are the bookseller staff just looking for an article to 'throw together'?
I remain a Hardback purchaser, and have always felt disappointed when an author is switched by his/her publisher to a TP; especially when there is no difference in price. I feel short-changed. So - this is good news from this reader/buyer's perspective. I do agree with Susan Hill's comments above - smaller format hardbacks can be beautifully produced, use far less paper (let's get those lovely big margins reduced, too...), and sit well on the shelf.
As a reader I prefer paperbacks. For looks hardbacks.
Trade paperbacks are horrible... too big, too unwieldly, too expensive.
It's just a way for a publisher to sell the same book three times (HB, trade, PB).
Shows disrespect for readership.
It is no surprise so many people go for Kindles now.
As a customer I strongly prefer hardback - regardless of format - and get very annoyed when books I've been anticipating only come out in paperback (especially when they're part of a series). Apart from anything else, the hardbacks are generally better quality.
If Everyman's Library can do the Dark Materials trilogy in a single properly-bound volume on acid-free paper for £14.99 - which is cheaper than buying the 3 paperbacks - I would like to know why other publishers' hardback novels are such pulpy, massive, wrist-snapping behemoths.
This is essentially a London debate, the rest the public can't afford Hardbacks anymore, except at Oxfam .
Is the production price of hardbacks so very much more expensive than of paperbacks? Why can't publisher's reduce the NSP to make hardbacks affordable? You can usually buy them on Amazon for a relative pittance, anyway, so there is no point whatsoever at offering them at £20.
What nonsense, Julian. You make it sound like everywhere outside the M25 is living on bread and dripping.
The article is about the publishing response to Waterstone's recent change of position, and the impact of the scrapped three for two promotion on their ongoing format decisions and the quotes were taken this week, as always with our news stories.
If the quotes were taken this week, someone doesn't know what they are talking about since 3-for-2 was scrapped a month ago.
The only person who talks about 342 in the article is doing so retrospectively (i.e. how the dominance of 342 at the chain USED to affect formatting decisions). I don't see anyone talking about it as if it's still going.
I agree that the size of hardback was always off putting, especially as they are too heavy and unwieldy to read and carry as a commuter. The only hardback fiction I used to buy was the BCA own printed editions which they also priced at no more than £10
Either have them as ebooks or as a hardback then the smaller size but keep the price to a maximum £9.99 or £12.99
I agree Trade Paperbacks are hell. To big, most rubbishly produced so the spines collapse and pages fall out and over priced.
I thought these only really sold at WHS Travel at the airports, although I never understand even today why publishers do not allow WHS Travel at train stations in London etc to sell them. I don't think many people at Waterloo would buy a £20 hardback fiction book there, but they may buy 2 smaller size hardbacks or trade paperbacks for £20 (so same pricing as the airports).
What is the big ripoff is those publishers who do hardback, trade paperback then paperback. Is just a way to fleece customers. Who would pay £12.99 for a trade paperback which is 6 months old when they know that the normal paperback is out in another 6 months for £4.
We are darling. And its going to get worse.
I second that remark unanimously.
Post new comment